Reconciling agriculture and ecology is not an easy task.
This Thursday, Prime Minister Gabriel Attal tried to extinguish the anger of farmers by announcing several measures, including some concerning pesticides.
The government will “pause” the Ecophyto plan, which must set objectives for reducing the use of pesticides and crystallizes the anger of field crop producers.
A decision widely criticized by elected environmentalists.
At the same time, the Prime Minister wants to prevent the importation into France of fruits and vegetables treated with the pesticide thiacloprid, a product banned in Europe but still authorized in several countries.
What is it about ?
Thiacloprid is part of the neonicotinoid family, pesticides implicated in bee mortality.
Thiacloprid is used in agriculture to protect against destructive insect attacks on cereal and vegetable crops.
It is also found in some flea control products used on pets.
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Pesticides: the importation into France of fruits and vegetables treated with thiacloprid will be prohibited, announces Attal
Produced by the pharmaceutical giant Bayer, it has been banned in France since 2018, while other neonicotinoids were the subject of an exceptional exemption in 2020 in the face of the proliferation of yellows in French beet fields.
The European Court of Justice ruled in 2023 in favor of banning them in all EU member states.
What do we know about its dangerousness?
The effects on human health are proven.
In a 2018 report, the National Agency for Food Safety (ANSES) classifies thiacloprid as a “suspected endocrine disruptor”, “likely to cause cancer” and “toxic for reproduction”.
She called on public authorities to “pay particular attention” to its use, which increased sharply between 2010 and 2015.
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However, ANSES considered the risk to human health “acceptable” if the product is used “in compliance with the conditions of use set out in the marketing authorizations”.
Thiacloprid is also harmful to the environment.
“The use of this pesticide raises environmental concerns, particularly regarding its impact on groundwater,” Health Commissioner Stella Kyriakides said a few years ago.
This product is criticized because of its harmful effects on bees and pollinators in general.
What the law says ?
As is often the case in agriculture, everything is played out at European level.
The European Union sets authorized maximum residue limits (MRLs) for this pesticide present in vegetables, cereals, meat and even coffee.
The authentic text is that published in the Official Journal of the EU in 2019. Example: for citrus fruits, the quantity of this pesticide must be a maximum of 0.01 mg/kg (the lowest possible).
For vegetables such as beets, carrots or other radishes, it is 0.05 mg/kg.
On the other hand, for salad, the authorized threshold is much higher.
That's for the authorized thresholds, but it is very difficult to know how much ends up on our plates.
In June 2023, the NGO La Fondation pour la nature et l'homme warned of the potential presence of pesticides in products imported from the European Union, not subject to the same rules and favored by free trade agreements such as Mercosur .
Also read: “Livestock is once again sacrificed”: why the EU – Mercosur agreement crystallizes passions
On January 17, the European Parliament rejected a proposal from the European Commission which called for the thiacloprid thresholds on imported products not to be reduced to zero.
He asked it (without being able to oblige it) to lower all the tolerance thresholds as much as possible and to “reject any request for import tolerance”.
By preventing these imports, Gabriel Attal intends to fight against “unfair competition” from products imported from outside the European Union for which these residual limits differ.
The impact on the French sector is, for the moment, difficult to assess.
When contacted, the main organizations in the sector (Interfel, the National Federation of Fruit and Vegetable Producers of France) did not respond to our questions.
Now the question of controls arises.
Ensuring that these fruits and vegetables meet European requirements will require enhanced traceability.